


Please let it stay

by Lothiriel84



Category: The Infinite Bad (Podcast)
Genre: Aromantic, Aromantic Awareness Week, Asexuality Spectrum, Emotionally Repressed, Friendship, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Post-Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:33:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22851799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lothiriel84/pseuds/Lothiriel84
Summary: Hey hey - I saved the world today(Everybody's happy nowThe bad thing's gone away)
Kudos: 1
Collections: Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week 2020





	Please let it stay

**Author's Note:**

> _“You know, I’ve been – I’ve been married – three times, three marriages, three divorces. And I’m beginning to think, perhaps I was the problem. Perhaps – perhaps it was me. You know, I don’t know, but – maybe? I think the problem is I’m too soft. The problem is I’m too damn soft – I’m a bleeding heart, always have been. Well, no longer.”_
> 
> – The Nightmare of Kau Yi Chau - Part 8

“Well,” Sebastian uttered to no one in particular, his gaze trained on the receding figures of their former friends and associates. “That’s that, then. I don’t think we’re going to hear from Mrs Cavendish again.”

“I’m sorry,” Dorothy murmured, the lingering horror of the past few hours bearing down on her like a volcanic cloud. “For whatever it’s worth, I still believe you did the right thing, Sebastian.”

“Tell that to Mrs Cavendish,” he grumbled, despondently. “She would have us killed, and all for what? Just so she could attempt to extract some answers from that – _thing_ , whatever it was.”

“It’s not your fault, Sebastian,” Dorothy reiterated, her tone as close to reassuring as she could manage under the circumstances. “I know you were just trying to protect us.”

He chuckled, humourlessly. “Yes, and a fat lot of good it did me in the end. It was always the same, even with my wives – no matter how hard I tried, I was never good enough.”

“Oh, Sebastian,” she shook her head, her instinct to soothe kicking in even in spite of her exhaustion. “I’m sure there’s no need for you to bring yourself down like that.”

The far-off look he turned on her did nothing to assuage her growing discomfort. “There’s something – broken, in me, always has been. And even with my wives, I could never – it’s not that I didn’t care, exactly, but never in the way they wished me to. I let them down, Dorothy – one after the other, and now I’ve just gone and done it again with you all, and I know we only ever were close associates at best, but – I don’t know.”

Her heart aching in sympathy, she took a step forward, offered him a comforting squeeze on his shoulder. “Whatever happened with your wives, there is one thing I know for sure – and it’s that you did take very good care of us, Sebastian. Nothing can change that.”

“I – guess I did, yes,” he muttered at length, the slight tremor in his voice almost painful to listen to. “Thank you, Dorothy.”

She squeezed his shoulder once more, nodded her head, and slowly retraced her steps down the dock. The sooner she could leave the nightmare of Kau Yi Chau firmly behind her, the better. 


End file.
